tâter

See also: tater, and Täter

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French taster, from Vulgar Latin *tastāre, contraction of *taxitō, frequentative of Late Latin taxāre (“touch repeatedly”), from Latin taxus. Compare English taste.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ta.te/ ~ /tɑ.te/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Audio (Vosges):

  (file)

Verb

tâter

1. to feel (touch lightly, to sense consistency or temperature)
2. to get a feel for
3. (obsolete, slang, sexual) to go to see someone

Conjugation

Conjugation of tâter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	tâter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	tâtant /ta.tɑ̃/ or /tɑ.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		tâté /ta.te/ or /tɑ.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	tâte /tat/ or /tɑt/	tâtes /tat/ or /tɑt/	tâte /tat/ or /tɑt/	tâtons /ta.tɔ̃/ or /tɑ.tɔ̃/	tâtez /ta.te/ or /tɑ.te/	tâtent /tat/ or /tɑt/
	imperfect	tâtais /ta.tɛ/ or /tɑ.tɛ/	tâtais /ta.tɛ/ or /tɑ.tɛ/	tâtait /ta.tɛ/ or /tɑ.tɛ/	tâtions /ta.tjɔ̃/ or /tɑ.tjɔ̃/	tâtiez /ta.tje/ or /tɑ.tje/	tâtaient /ta.tɛ/ or /tɑ.tɛ/
	past historic2	tâtai /ta.te/ or /tɑ.te/	tâtas /ta.ta/ or /tɑ.ta/	tâta /ta.ta/ or /tɑ.ta/	tâtâmes /ta.tam/ or /tɑ.tam/	tâtâtes /ta.tat/ or /tɑ.tat/	tâtèrent /ta.tɛʁ/ or /tɑ.tɛʁ/
	future	tâterai /ta.tʁe/ or /tɑ.tʁe/	tâteras /ta.tʁa/ or /tɑ.tʁa/	tâtera /ta.tʁa/ or /tɑ.tʁa/	tâterons /ta.tʁɔ̃/ or /tɑ.tʁɔ̃/	tâterez /ta.tʁe/ or /tɑ.tʁe/	tâteront /ta.tʁɔ̃/ or /tɑ.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	tâterais /ta.tʁɛ/ or /tɑ.tʁɛ/	tâterais /ta.tʁɛ/ or /tɑ.tʁɛ/	tâterait /ta.tʁɛ/ or /tɑ.tʁɛ/	tâterions /ta.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /tɑ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	tâteriez /ta.tə.ʁje/ or /tɑ.tə.ʁje/	tâteraient /ta.tʁɛ/ or /tɑ.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	tâte /tat/ or /tɑt/	tâtes /tat/ or /tɑt/	tâte /tat/ or /tɑt/	tâtions /ta.tjɔ̃/ or /tɑ.tjɔ̃/	tâtiez /ta.tje/ or /tɑ.tje/	tâtent /tat/ or /tɑt/
	imperfect2	tâtasse /ta.tas/ or /tɑ.tas/	tâtasses /ta.tas/ or /tɑ.tas/	tâtât /ta.ta/ or /tɑ.ta/	tâtassions /ta.ta.sjɔ̃/ or /tɑ.ta.sjɔ̃/	tâtassiez /ta.ta.sje/ or /tɑ.ta.sje/	tâtassent /ta.tas/ or /tɑ.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	tâte /tat/ or /tɑt/	—	tâtons /ta.tɔ̃/ or /tɑ.tɔ̃/	tâtez /ta.te/ or /tɑ.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• à tâter
• tâter le terrain

 

Further reading

• “tâter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• tarte